Cobol - Re: Any comments? (Answers to Pete)

Author

Re: Any comments? (Answers to Pete)

Holly

2006-04-08, 3:55 am

Thank you for helping out a hopeless cause-
We discussed Microfocus and that was what we were going to do until our
manager said it was too expensive.
Part of this whole mess is that when the project was announced, we
already had VB 6 apps. Then when my team lead became assigned to the
project he decided that he would rewrite all of them in IBM Cobol
because, then later on in the project we would use microfocus to
convert them to run on a unix box because that is what he thought we
would be using. Well, management really threw us for a loop a month
ago by making the decision for us with our offsite hosting partner that
they would rather save some money and use a Windows server. We come in
to meet with the hosting partner's consultants with our management, and
they surprise us by changing the platform.
So now we have two options, option 1 is to use the VB apps that are
currently running in production, that we know work, or option 2 to use
my team lead's cobol code that he rewrote planning to compile with
microfocus and run on aix. But for option 2 to work, we have to
compile with microfocus, fujitsu, whatever to work on a windows server.
I don't think that the guys who are supposed to decide on the system
will actually purchase the software licenses and make a real decision
until it is too late and working 24 hours a day 7 days a w

, we still
won't be able to get it to work by May 1st.

It's sort of out of my control, I feel more comfortable with our
existing VB apps, using .NET and VBScripting. But my team lead, I
think, wants to go with Microfocus cobol., which is fine too but
wouldn't be my choice.
Eventually they will decide and then let me know a couple days before
the deadline what it is. But as a programmer, not a systems analyst or
network analyst, I have a bit of a learning curve, especially when I'm
asking all of these questions and my team lead and manager aren't. It
scares me a bit.

2006-04-08, 6:55 pm

In article <1144489292.670943.151460@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Holly <anderschwan@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Thank you for helping out a hopeless cause-
>We discussed Microfocus and that was what we were going to do until our
>manager said it was too expensive.

This kind of response needs to be followed *immediately* with 'All right,
the MicroFocus solution costs ($n) and is 'too expensive'... what is
'cheap enough'?'

An answer without a number is unacceptable; to be held to the standards of
working within a budget - which makes something 'too expensive' - without
having the actual substance of a budget, i.e. the numbers within one must
work (allowing for a solution to be determined as 'cheap enough') is an
attempt to guarantee a project's failure.

[snip]

>Eventually they will decide and then let me know a couple days before
>the deadline what it is.

See above about 'an attempt to guarantee a project's failure'; it is my
estimation that the situation you describe is one that someone just Does
Not Want To See Work.

>But as a programmer, not a systems analyst or
>network analyst, I have a bit of a learning curve, especially when I'm
>asking all of these questions and my team lead and manager aren't. It
>scares me a bit.

No need to be frightened... I would say that you are being exposed,
first-hand, to some of the essential contradictions of Business Life.

DD

Pete Dashwood

2006-04-13, 6:55 pm

"Alistair" <alistair@ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1144938222.973033.158450@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> docdwarf@panix.com wrote:
>
> We seem to be playing a game of "Why don't you, yes but...." (See "The
> Games That People Play" by Eric Berne). Holly has an insolvable problem
> and will benefit from having that problem resolved or publicly declared
> to be without solution. Her (?) management do not appear to wish to be
> successful and are making no effort to prevent failure of the project.
> Perhaps Holly should make a document listing each potential
> solution/managerial refutation, decision/indecision,
> direction/misdirection, etc., so that if she (?) ends up in court then
> at least she (?) will have some form of supporting documentation to
> back up her claim for unfair dismissal?
>
I don't believe the problems in her workplace are insoluble. A close
scrutiny of her management with some serious retraining and, possibly,
replacement, would help a lot. Whether there is a will within the
organisation to make things better, is, of course, another question...

Pete.

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